RE: [GZG-WCC] So Ted, did we win?

True, scatterguns fire "many thousands of small hypervelocity 
penetrators" "like a shotgun blast". This does not mean that
it does not have to point at the target. At 1mu = 1000km, the
cone of projected locations for the target fighter craft would 
be enormous. The scattergun would have to expend mass
equal to the ship in order cover areas up to 6mu away. Thus,
it is reasonable that the scatterguns focus the projectiles 
on the expected path of the fighter group. In fact they have
to be able to aim, otherwise they would just have 1 arc.

In the same way PDS fires many low power (in comparison
to Class-1 Beams) shots to cover a similar area in order to 
shoot down attacking fighters. PDS do not hit with every 
shot; in fact they miss as much as they hit. The beams
don't just evaporate. If a friendly ship is behind the fighter
that you just missed, it is likely going to receive the hit.
For a visual example, review the Deathstar fighter battle,
the TIE fighters often strafe the surface of the Deathstar
while trying to get a fighter. Or the Hollywood version of
Godzilla where the helicopters trash the buildings, as
they miss the 40 story lizard.

OTHOH,

Just having re-read the rules on scatterguns, I see that the
missing in area defense mode is covered already. That it
is not with PDS/ADFC is something that I can live with
even if it does not make the most of sense (to me).

-----
Brian Bell	 
-----

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris DeBoe [SMTP:LASERLIGHT@QUIXNET.NET]
> Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 1:11 PM
> To:	gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Subject:	Re: [GZG-WCC] So Ted, did we win?
> 
> From: Bell, Brian K <Brian_Bell@dscc.dla.mil>
> > Hmmm. If you make Scatterguns able to hit the
> > protected ships, you should make the same
> > rule for PDS when used with ADFC. Remember
> > that PDS can be used in an anti-ship role also.
> 
> But each PDS shot is aimed; the scattergun just points in the general
> direction and counts on the spread to hit.